Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 November 2013
268. Deputy Simon Harris asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the processes in place for a public servant who wishes to be re-deployed from one State agency to another; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48930/13]
View answerThe Public Service Agreements (PSAs) covering the period 2010-16 (the Croke Park and Haddington Road Agreements) set out the redeployment arrangements that apply in the Civil Service and in other parts of the Public Service. Under the PSAs, redeployment generally takes precedence over all other methods of filling a vacancy and supersedes any existing agreements on the deployment of staff.
The arrangements for the redeployment staff within the Health, Education, and Local Government sectors are managed directly by those sectors and day-to-day issues are a matter for the Minister responsible for the relevant sector.
Redeployment for the Civil Service and Non-Commercial State Sponsored Bodies (NCSSBs) under their aegis operates through a system of Resource Panels. These panels contain details of the posts identified by organisations for redeployment in these sectors on the basis of changing business needs or ongoing management of the Employment Control Framework (ECF) ceilings by public service bodies. The Public Appointments Service (PAS) administers the Redeployment Panel System for these sectors and facilitates cross-sectoral assignments where necessary.
It is a matter for the employer to identify the number and location of posts at each grade to be redeployed in the first instance. Once this has been done, volunteers will be sought for the Resource Panel. If the number of volunteers falls short, Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) will be applied, as appropriate.
While staff may be moved between different organisations as a consequence of the redeployment arrangements detailed above, they were not designed for and are not used to facilitate requests from individuals for transfers to address personal circumstances.
Civil Service departments and other public service organisations vary in relation to the approaches they adopt to the transfer of their own staff between locations and to other organisations and no centrally agreed approach applies. A person employed by a State Agency who wishes to be redeployed to another State Agency outside of the redeployment system should therefore raise the matter directly with their own organisation.
